A GUIDE FOR CONSUMERS

FOOD HYGIENE RATING SCHEME

Find out about the hygiene standards in your favourite restaurants, takeaways and food shops

food.gov.uk/ratings EATING OUT? GETTING FOOD IN? CHECK THE FOOD HYGIENE RATING

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme helps make it easier for you to choose places with good hygiene when you’re eating out or shopping for food. The food hygiene rating tells you about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other places you eat out, as well as in supermarkets and other food shops.

The scheme is run by local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in partnership with the Food Standards Agency.

SPOTTING GOOD FOOD HYGIENE

When you eat out or shop for food, look out for a sticker in the window or on the door, showing you the food hygiene rating for that business. Businesses are encouraged to display the stickers at their premises in places where you can easily see them when you visit.

If the food outlet you want to visit isn’t displaying a sticker, you can ask the staff about the business’s rating.

You can also look up food hygiene ratings online at food.gov.uk/ratings ABOUT HYGIENE RATINGS

Each business is given a hygiene rating when it is inspected by a food safety officer from the business's local authority. The hygiene rating tells you the standards of hygiene found at the time of the inspection.

A business is given one of six ratings. These are on a scale from ‘0’ at the bottom, which means that urgent improvement is necessary, to ‘5’ at the top, which means that the business was found to have ‘very good’ hygiene standards. Any business should be able to reach this top rating.

The food hygiene rating is not a guide to food quality. WHAT’S INSPECTED?

The food safety officer inspecting a business checks how well the business is meeting the law on food hygiene by looking at:

- How hygienically the food is handled – including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage
- The cleanliness and condition of facilities and building (including having appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control) to enable good food hygiene
- How food safety within the business is managed, including a system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future

The food safety officer will explain to the person who owns or manages the business if there are any improvements needed, what they are and how they can achieve a higher rating.

SEARCH YOUR AREA

Does your favourite restaurant, takeaway or food shop have good hygiene standards?

You can find out at food.gov.uk/ratings